Natalie Haynes: biography

Television

Natalie is a regular panellist on BBC2's The Review Show, and appeared on Newsnight Review for its final three years, including its 2009 visit to the Cannes Film Festival, and the last ever show in December 2009.

She has appeared as a panellist on BBC 4's The Book Quiz, and on their Poetry Special alongside Andrew Motion and George Szirtes. She has appeared on various documentaries and panel shows, and she is a paper reviewer for Sky News.

In 2008, Natalie presented a documentary about using comedy in the classroom for Teachers' TV, which you can see here.

Radio

Natalie's documentary on Greek Tragedy and soap opera, Oedipusenders, was broadcast on Radio 4 in April 2010. Her next documentary, Attila the Hen, was about urban chicken keeping, and broadcast in March 2011. Vampires vs Zombies was her next radio doc, examining the metaphorical role of our monsters du jour. She has just presented With Great Pleasure, about the books which have shaped her life, on Radio 4.

Natalie has appeared on Woman's Hour, You and Yours, A Good Read, and What's The Point Of...? and she has been a panellist on Banter, Quote Unquote, Personality Test, We've Been Here Before, and Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, all on Radio 4. She has been a regular panellist on two series of Wordaholics (the panel show about words). She reviews the arts for Front Row and Saturday Review.

Natalie wrote and presented Laughing Matters, a documentary about comic writers from Jessica Mitford and Dorothy Parker to Fran Lebowitz and Cynthia Heimel, also for Radio 4, in May 2005. Her second documentary, Classical Comedy, about how modern comedians stole all their jokes from Aristophanes, Juvenal and Martial, was broadcast on Radio 4 in October 2006.

Her stand-up has been featured on Political Animal, 28 Acts in 28 Minutes, and Loose Ends on Radio 4, as well as on BBC 7's Spanking New. She has also appeared in the Radio 4 Pick of the Fringe in 2004 and 2005.

Books

Natalie's most recent book, The Ancient Guide To Modern Life, was published in the UK by Profile Books in November 2010. It was published by the Overlook Press in the US in May 2011. The Spanish edition, Una Guia de la Antiguedad Para La Vida Moderna, was published by Ares y Mares in June 2011, and the Greek edition came out in 2012. Here she is speaking to 2200 Chicagoans at Chicago Ideas Week.

Natalie's first novel, The Great Escape, was published by Simon & Schuster in September 2007. It won a PETA Proggy Award, for best animal-friendly children's book, in 2008.

She contributed an essay to Fifty Shades of Feminism, published by Virago in March 2013, and an essay for An Atheist's Guide To Christmas, profits of which go to the Terrence Higgins Trust. She also wrote an essay for Serenity Found, a book about Joss Whedon's television show, Firefly, edited by Jane Espenson, which was published in autumn 2007 by BenBella Books.

Journalism

Natalie writes a weekly column for The Independent. She was a guest contributor for The Times from 2006 — 2010. She wrote the fortnightly TV Detectives blog for The Guardian, and also writes for The Observer, The Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph and The Big Issue. She writes a monthly film column for The Reader's Digest magazine.

Live Work

Natalie has retired from her decade-long career as a stand-up comedian. She occasionally returns for benefit gigs.